That's a nice piece of equipment. But couldn't you just put your boiling pot in a sink full of ice water?

That's what takes an hour or so.

And you need a lot of ice and a big sink for a 6 or so gallon pot.

I see. I may grab one of those down the road. But for now, I don't want to spend the extra $$.

OOOOOOkay!

I did my first couple of batches using the ice method and they turned out fine. It is much quicker using the chiller, however.
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Your worts most vulnerable time is between when you stop boiling and when the yeast starts fermenting. That's what makes a wort chiller nice is you can shorten the time your wort is exposed before you pitch your yeast to it. But a sink full of ice will do the job if you're careful, like Dartgod I did my first couple of batches that way.

Okay, got my kit and I'm ready to brew my first batch this weekend. A couple questions for you guys that know this stuff.

- I will be using the glass carboy for the fermenting stage. Correct?

- Then I will siphon it into the plastic bucket for the bottling process after the fermentation period (1 week? Or was that 2 weeks? - need to go back to John Palmer's site for reference). Do I have this right? The reason I ask is that the plastic bucket also has a hole in the top for the airlock. My understanding is that I should ferment in the carboy and transfer to bucket after this stage in order to get rid of some of the sediment prior to bottling.

- Its okay to pour hot boiled water into the glass carboy?

bucket....then carboy. edit: guess it really doesnt matter, thats just the way i do it.

No, you have to cool the beer down to 70 F then put in it the bucket.

no set amount of time. i keep mine in longer than 2 weeks before even transferring to carboy

Wish I would have caught this thread again a week ago.

I have a glass carboy that I really want to get rid of. For me the plastic Better Bottles are just superior because of saftey factor alone. I have heard horror stories of people dropping and breaking the glass carboys that really makes me nervous when I have to use mine.

What size of glass carboy did you get? If it is the 6.5 Gallon size then you will use it for primary fermentation, if you only got the 5 Gallon carboy then that is more of a secondary fermentation (which is really only necessary when you are making a beer that requires more conditioning time such as a lager or a high gravity beer). From what you are describing, it sounds like you got both a fermenting bucket and a glass carboy, did you get another bucket for bottling?

What type of beer are you making? 2 weeks is a good amount of time for most beers, and pretty much the absolute minimum time I will will ferment for.

You should not pour boiling water into the glass carboy. Temperature shock could cause it to break. What I have done in the past is boiled the top off water, let it cool for a while on the stove, then pour it into a sanitized fementer (bucket or Carboy) and then throw my airlock on and put it in fridge to cool down while I do the rest of my brewing. If you don't have a fridge, just let it hang out with the airlock on while you are brewing, but make sure you check the temperature when combining.

Secondary is really just needed for extended periods of conditioning. Autolysis (The main reason you transfer to a secondary) has been proven to take a lot longer than previously thought to occur. I had an experimental batch of a very light Blonde Ale that was in the primary for 2 1/2 months to see if my brewing club could detect any autolysis, it was consensus that they could not detect any. I have read other people's accounts that have said the same thing, as does Mr. Palmer himself.

So I guess in summary, the transfer from the primary to the secondary has more chance of harming your beer than leaving your yeast on the beer for anything less than a few months. I have used secondary once in my brewing life and had no discernible different.

See, this is why I'm confused on this. This shows it fermenting in the carboy.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter8-2-2.html

Absolutely correct on this point. To clean my plastic I let it soak in oxyclean or PBW overnight, then I dump out all but just a bit of the liquid, stuff a rag in it, and use centrifugal force to clean the inside. Works very well, and no chance of a heavy, wet glass carboy slipping out of my hand. To me that is more benefit than possibly having to replace my carboys 5-10 years down the road.

I have a keg, cause bottling sucks major wang....

So does cooling down without a wort chiller...

Before I had a carboy I would transfer the beer to the keg, wash out and sanitize the bucket, then syphon the beer right back into it. But, I ended up ponying up for the carboy cause i like to stare at it like its a saltwater aquarium.